Glad to hear it. I am experiencing some of the same things you experienced transitioning from a dovo shavette(I prefer the long dovo blades) to real straights. I do pretty well not cutting and irritating myself. I feel I owe that to the shavette. I also am missing the "buttery glide" but I feel I am good with my angles. Been very tempted to go back to the shavette. I think I may have messed up two of my pro-honed blades before I figured out stropping(jury is still out on that statement). I suppose I should say I've only been doing real straights for a couple of weeks and it definitely took me longer than that to become proficient with the shavette. It's nice to know you came out the otherside. There's hope for me yet.